How Cities Can Reduce the Number of People Killed by Drivers of Massive Vehicles

We write rather a lot about pedestrian security, and it’s not as a result of we hate vehicles, it’s as a result of we usually imagine that killing individuals is unhealthy. Also, we wish to stay in a world the place you may cross the avenue with out having to fret that you simply’re going to die.

Unfortunately, vehicles are getting greater and greater, and with huge utes and SUVs, it’s no marvel that street deaths on this nation proceed to worsen yearly.

And sure, the sort of autos on the street completely issues. It’s going to harm when you get hit by a Camry doing 60km/h, but it surely’s going to harm a complete lot extra when you get hit by a Ram going the identical velocity. Additionally, there’s little or no probability that you simply’ll be thrown beneath the Camry when it hits you, whereas, with the TRX, there’s a very good probability you’ll get thrown to the grown and run over.

But how can we realistically begin turning issues round? It can be nice to have the ability to magically rework each city and metropolis right into a extremely walkable space with nice bike infrastructure and no must drive, however very like the second-generation Tesla Roadster, magic isn’t actual. Are we simply caught with increasingly more individuals dying in the streets yearly? Not essentially.

Recently, Ars Technica printed an article by Kevin J. Krizek, a professor of sustainable planning and concrete design at the University of Colorado, targeted on answering precisely that query. One essential level is that pedestrian-friendly, well-designed cities similar to Amsterdam and Copenhagen haven’t all the time been that means simply because they’re outdated. They responded to grassroots actions that pressured metropolis officers to make modifications for the higher. Today, many areas of these cities look nothing like they did in the Seventies.

Large-scale change is tough and takes time, however there are additionally a quantity of issues that native governments can do to discourage the use of huge autos and promote pedestrian security:

• Creating prioritized parking areas nearer to shops for all varieties of mobility which might be slim or lower than 8 toes (2.5 meters) lengthy
• Using posts or bollards, which might be detachable, to restrict car entry to business areas and neighborhoods the place pedestrians, bikes, and smaller vehicles get precedence
• Radically narrowing journey lanes on streets to drive site visitors to decelerate and release house for wider sidewalks and bike lanes
• Limiting or ending car entry to streets close to faculties and economically vibrant business districts, both completely or at high-use instances of day.

Would such modifications make issues much less handy for drivers? Sure. But what’s much more inconvenient? Getting hit by a automotive simply since you dared to cross the avenue to get to a restaurant.